home network from hell ( I hate XP networking)

[Guest]

I have 2 XP Pro machines and 1 XP Home machine all with SP2. They all have a
Computer Associates: eTrust EZ Firewall installed on them. I have defined
the local network as Trusted on it. I have tried completely disabling the
firewall unsuccessfully. I have disabled the default Windows firewall. I
have a Microsoft MN-500 router which is what each computer connects to. All
connections are wired/ethernet. All computers can access the internet
flawlessly.

No computer can see any of the other computers. No computer can access the
other computers via mapping a network drive or the command line. One
computer cannot even see ITSELF.

I tried switching from Default to Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. That didn't
work. I have looked through a number of tutorials, troubleshooting guides,
and the like online and none of them work for me.

Please Help!

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I have 2 XP Pro machines and 1 XP Home machine all with SP2. They all have a
Computer Associates: eTrust EZ Firewall installed on them. I have defined
the local network as Trusted on it. I have tried completely disabling the
firewall unsuccessfully. I have disabled the default Windows firewall. I
have a Microsoft MN-500 router which is what each computer connects to. All
connections are wired/ethernet. All computers can access the internet
flawlessly.

No computer can see any of the other computers. No computer can access the
other computers via mapping a network drive or the command line. One
computer cannot even see ITSELF.

I tried switching from Default to Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. That didn't
work. I have looked through a number of tutorials, troubleshooting guides,
and the like online and none of them work for me.

Please Help!

I'm sorry that you're having so much trouble. It would help if we
knew what troubleshooting steps you've already tried, so we don't
recommend the same ones again.

When the eTrust EZ Firewall is active, you must disable SP2's Windows
Firewall. Using more than one firewall is likely to cause network
problems.

I'm assuming that TCP/IP is the only network protocol installed on any
of the computers. Using more than one protocol, on even one computer,
is likely to cause network problems.

On each computer, try pinging itself and the other computers, both by
IP address and by name. For example, if computers 1-3 have IP
addresses 192.168.1.1-192.168.1-3:

ping 192.168.1.1
ping 192.168.1.2
ping 192.168.1.3
ping computer1
ping computer2
ping computer3

If all of the pings fail, the problem is almost certainly caused by a
firewall. In that case, un-install (don't just disable) the eTrust
firewall on every computer, and don't re-install it until everything
works. It's safe, because your router acts as a firewall and protects
your computers from access by other Internet users.

If the IP address pings succeed and the computer name pings fail,
there's a name resolution problem. Make sure that the Computer
Browser service is running on each computer.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Danny Kile]

I have 2 XP Pro machines and 1 XP Home machine all with SP2. They all have a
Computer Associates: eTrust EZ Firewall installed on them. I have defined
the local network as Trusted on it. I have tried completely disabling the
firewall unsuccessfully. I have disabled the default Windows firewall. I
have a Microsoft MN-500 router which is what each computer connects to. All
connections are wired/ethernet. All computers can access the internet
flawlessly.

No computer can see any of the other computers. No computer can access the
other computers via mapping a network drive or the command line. One
computer cannot even see ITSELF.

I tried switching from Default to Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. That didn't
work. I have looked through a number of tutorials, troubleshooting guides,
and the like online and none of them work for me.

Please Help!

All PC should have the same workgroup name and all PC should have a
unique user name.

--
Danny Kile
Please reply to the Newsgroup ONLY

"Dogs come when they're called, CATS take a message and get back to
you." Mary Bly

 

[Malke]

All PC should have the same workgroup name and all PC should have a
unique user name.

This isn't actually true, Danny. Although it is neater to have all
computers in the same Workgroup, being in different Workgroups does not
affect Windows machines' ability to share files. It is also not
necessary for all PC's to have a unique *user* name, although it is
necessary for all machines to have a unique *computer* name. Here's a
link to MVP Steve Winograd's site explaining this:

http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/myths.htm

Malke

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your help Steve and everyone else for that matter. I should have
mentioned that all the computers are on a single workgroup with the workgroup
name being the same in each computer.

Allright, I tried your ping ip/ping computer name test. The results were
this for each computer.

ping my computer ip: success
ping my computer name: success
ping other computer ip: success
ping other computer name: FAIL

I take it this may be a symptom of the Computer Browser problems you
mentioned, but I really need some specific instructions to remedy the
problem. I googled Computer Browser for XP, and got some info, but nothing
helpful. I tried setting one computer's MainServerList from Auto to Yes, and
IsDomainMaster from False to True in the registry. I reset my computers to
see if it would work but it didn't.

Thanks for your help so far, and I would be most grateful if you could point
me in the right direction from here.